sep 19-20: action, reaction

during the first 6 hours of the new school year, i discover that my body is searching for a deeper presence in my practice.

technically speaking this can be isolated down to 2 areas of my body that, over the past 2 days, has informed me repeatedly to discern between action and reaction to produce the transformation i seek.

by the time Gerard cued us to 'look not for tension' in our poses but to 'look for a reaction when you take action', i was already exploring the collaborating relationship between my anterior and posterior muscle groups to both deepen and challenge my postures.  in the standing forward bend positions, i noticed that by engaging my deep hip flexion muscles, i could deepen my hip flexion which sent my sitbones higher toward the sky.  during the single leg standing postures, by recruiting my superficial hip flexors actively, i was able lift my leg higher in the Utthita hasta padangusthasana whereas the active lifting of my kneecap in so doing took me right out of my comfort zone in Natarajasana as i looked for a standing balance without hyperextending my leg.  from these examples alone, i learned to both protect and recruit my back optimally via the engagement of my abdominals, and to activate the anterior muscles of my leg which are often neglected due to the degree of suppleness that i enjoy in leg flexion.

to put the theory to test, i recreated my Sun Salutations or Vinyasa, as referred to by Gerard, starting with Chaturanga dandasana.  in the past 2 years, i have experienced lower back pain and resistance during the salutations that i practiced in between deep seated flexion postures.  this weekend, the deeper engagement of my core muscles (abdominals, multifidi, pelvic floor and diaphragm) via a slightly more active exhale rendered the transitions seamlessly.  there was no resistance as i moved into Urdha mukha svanasana, and most noticeably, no back pain.

i continued to work on the Utthita hasta padangusthasana and Natarajasana series of poses with focused quadricep engagement and found that while focusing on my leg alone would put me off my balance, adding the core engagement would stabilise my spine and redirect my focus to a whole body interaction. this applied equally to my focus on my upper body when Gerard cued us to square our shoulders, which would also tip my balance until i enlisted the same core engagement to center my relationship with gravity.

as i write this i cannot help but mention the pilates method which i have been practicing for 5 years and teaching for 4.  my yoga practice has been enriching my pilates teaching practice for a year now, since the start of my first 200 hrs of yoga teacher training.  yoga has softened my approach to teaching pilates, which tends to be precision-driven (precision is one of the principles of the pilates method, along with breathing, concentration, control, fluidity, centering and balanced development), and has encouraged me to invite transformation alongside the giving of information.  today i rediscover that pilates is encouraging me to explore actions in my search for the opposite and/or synergistic reactions within my body that could guide me toward physical transformation, and hence a deeper and more balanced inner and outer presence in the process.

the universe continued to listen to my thoughts (and probably does so more than i give her credit for) as we broached the very subject as a student group in a round circle setting towards the end of our sunday workshop.  the question of how much information to give, how to teach what we practice and communicate what we feel was addressed with anxiety by some, frustration by others and a patient curiosity by the rest.  i listened to Gerard as he calmly coached us through the lesson of learning, how it is an individual experience and how we are essentially here to accompany our students on their personal journeys rather than defining it for them.  the spirit of his words reminded me of the following quote which has come to sum up what yoga means to me.

As T.K.V. Desikachar says on The Life and Yoga of Sri T. Krishnamacharya in The Heart of Yoga:


It is not that a person needs to accommodate him- or herself to yoga, but rather the yoga practice must be tailored to fit each person.


This implies that progress on the path of yoga means different things for different people. We must not obstruct this progress by deliberately setting certain goals.


Yoga serves the individual, and does so through inviting transformation rather than by giving information.



Namaste.